With two Mid-American Conference matches at home this weekend, the Ball State University women's volleyball team's regular season comes to a close.
The Cardinals play Eastern Michigan University at 7 p.m. today and Central Michigan University Saturday night.
"I think that this time of year, being the last two games, especially when they are at home, there is an extra desperation to win," Stephanie Bacan said.
The match against Central Michigan will be Ball State's senior night. This year there are four seniors: Kelly Cochran, Amanda McCormick, Kirby Gibson and Bacan.
McCormick and Cochran are both up for records and career accomplishments.
McCormick is now 32 digs short of 2,200 career digs. She is up for an NCAA record for digs per game (dpg) average. Entering this weekend, McCormick has a 7.61 dpg career average and is ahead of the current record of 7.02 dpg by former Oral Roberts University player Becky Dreher.
As for Cochran, she is two kills shy of reaching 1,200 kills and 1,200 digs for her career. If Cochran can get two kills she will join Sarah Obras and Megan Hammos as the third player in team history to achieve 1,200 kills and 1,200 digs during her Ball State careers.
Despite these individual statistics, for coach Randy Litchfield this weekend can have big results for the conference tournament.
"This time of year it is so much about motivation and ability to deal with pressure," Litchfield said. "This is just a big weekend with all sorts of tournament implications, but it's equally as big for Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan. A good team will know that they are going to be in for a fight and deal with that. I really just hope that we come prepared for a fight."
Earlier this season, Ball State lost three straight games to Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan.
"It's a simple fact that we played at EMU and at CMU the poorest we've played all year," Litchfield said. "I think all we have to do is play better volleyball and just show up to play. [If we can do that] then we have a fighting chance."
The Cardinals have a 6-8 MAC record and could finish the regular season between fourth and ninth place in the conference, depending on how they do this weekend.
With Ball State's MAC tournament seed unknown, the team enters its final two games not knowing who it will play in the first round of the conference tournament, or if the match will be at home.
"First we have to find out were we are going to land, and hopefully this weekend we can do really well," Bacan said. "[Then we will] get a good seat. We want to let the underclassmen know what the MAC tournament is. It's the best time of the year."
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